


The One Who Got Out (and Was Dragged Back In)

by broken_ankle



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Minor Character Death, as in a fair number of angels plus the godly siblings are human, but not graphic, but there's no humans-as-angels in here, it is kind of a retelling of a part of the first episode of season one after all, the implied deaths are of minor characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-08
Updated: 2020-11-08
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:40:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27442084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/broken_ankle/pseuds/broken_ankle
Summary: This wasn't supposed to happen.After Michael saw their mother burn, after Lucifer saw his boyfriend burn, this wasn't supposed to happen.Castiel wasn't supposed to see his best friend burn on a ceiling.
Relationships: Lucifer & Michael (Supernatural)
Kudos: 4





	The One Who Got Out (and Was Dragged Back In)

**Author's Note:**

> I actually wrote this on November 7th as I was just coming down from the high of being a European who woke up in the middle of all the stuff going on November 5th/November 6th and proceeded to snicker for the whole day. Then, in the middle of writing this, the CNN called it and I began laughing.
> 
> I wanted to call this _The Colour of Despair_ then I remembered that, right, can't use that now. Not exactly what I'm writing.
> 
> Anyway, the birth of this idea was a scene which would be placed between seasons four and five (the siblings' reactions to Lilith's death and consequent start of the Apocalypse), but this one wanted to be written first. I honestly don't know if I'll write more, but in that case I could just jump to when two angels have already gotten the Righteous Person out of Hell.
> 
> Warnings for referenced minor characters death via fire. A fire is referenced. People mourn. Men cry. Reader discretion is advised.
> 
> If I've missed a tag please do tell me. Drop a comment saying what you thought of this, if you want.

“What time is it?”

“We’re not even on the same coast, Michael,” comes Raphael’s slightly amused voice from the phone.

Michael pries his eyes open and casts a glance to the clock on the nightstand. Way too early. “Why are you calling in the middle of the night?” he grunts into the receiver, rolling onto his back to stare at the ceiling. Lucifer is still snoring on the other bed. Sometimes Michael really envies his brother.

“I could say that I’ve murdered Gabriel, but unfortunately I’m too fond of him for my own good."

“Everyone wants to kill Gabriel, what’s your point?” Wanting to kill Castiel, now, that would be another matter entirely, with the whole rivalry or whatever they have going on. Michael is not really awake enough to think straight, but he is pretty sure it would be Castiel killing Raphael anyway, if something of the like ever were to happen.

“Father’s not answering his phone,” Raphael says.

Michael is suddenly very much awake. “He has found it,” he says, and it is not a question.

Raphael’s voice is grim when he replies. “Or he’s finally dead. Either way, we’d better find out which.”

Michael glances at the clock again, this time properly noting the hour. “Have you told anyone else?”

“Gabriel’s been lending me a hand for the last two weeks. You’re the first one I called.”

He nods. “I’ll call the others. You tell Aunt Amara. We’ll all meet at Uncle Chuck’s in three days.”

Raphael closes the call. Michael is up and shaking Lucifer in the next moment.

“What’s going on?” Lucifer asks, still half-asleep and with his eyes closed.

“Get up, we’re going to Palo Alto.”

* * *

Lucifer would never admit that he’s terrified of falling asleep.

He keeps staring at the ceiling, waiting, just waiting to see Michael burn up there, like mother did, like Will did, like Cassie’s friend did this afternoon.

“Stop moving,” Michael rasps from the other bed in the room. “I cannot fall asleep with you moving all the time.”

That doesn’t—Michael can fall asleep with the light on and a storm outside, it doesn’t make sense that he’d be disturbed by the rustle of sheets.

Unless—

“You’re remembering her, aren’t you?” he asks the dark.

Michael doesn’t answer for a few minutes, but that’s okay. Lucifer remembers those days, when his big brother didn’t speak much but always had Cassie in his arms and Balth not too far away. He remembers crawling with Raphael into Michael’s bed at night.

"I do not think I will ever be able to forget it,” Michael says, his voice hoarse. “As you and Castiel will not.”

Lucifer almost doesn’t want to ask what he knows is on his brother’s mind too. Fuck it, he doesn’t want to ask, he doesn’t want to revive it, neither of the previous two, but—

“Do you think it’s the same thing?” he asks, and he hears a bitter laugh from the other bed.

“What else could it be?” Michael says, and Lucifer can’t really fault him for his vicious tone.

He still remembers that night of twenty years ago. He didn’t see mother dying, but he remembers the stench of the fire, remembers Michael putting Gabriel in his arms and telling him to run outside with Raphael and the twins. He remembers waiting with his heart in his throat to see Michael emerge from the house, Cassie and Balth clutched tightly to his chest.

He remembers Will, eight years ago, burning on a ceiling just like Cassie's friend this afternoon, just like Michael told him mother had while both of them were working on getting drunk in a bar.

He remembers seeing Will everywhere he went for months.

Michael is right. They’ll never forget.

And now Cassie won’t either.

* * *

“Don’t bring him back into this,” Balthazar hisses while the funeral goes on in the distance. “Don’t you fucking dare.”

Michael looks at his brother, really looks at him, and he sees the same anger he had two years ago when he and Castiel packed up to come to California.

“I will not,” he promises, but he knows it is already too late. Castiel’s best friend burnt on a ceiling in front of his eyes.

Their youngest brother has already been brought back in their life, whether any of them likes it or not.

* * *

“Is it true?”

Lucifer looks at the diner again. “Yes.” Cassie isn’t eating. Michael is glancing worriedly at him. Balthazar is alternating between fuming and rubbing Cassie’s back.

Anna swears on the other side of the line. “How is he?”

Lucifer glances inside again. “He’s been crying non-stop since what he saw really hit him.”

Anna explodes. “He'd gotten out! He was the one who got out!” Lucifer hears his sister take a breath, and another. “He got out,” she whispers, and if there’s a crack in her voice they don’t mention it.

“And he’ll stay out, if we have any say in it,” Lucifer says, but he knows, he knows that it’s impossible. Father’s disappearance wouldn’t have been enough–and they hadn’t even planned on telling him, just on asking Balthazar to be even more careful and ready for anything, damn it–but this…

Lucifer knows how this feels.

“We all know he won’t,” Anna says, and Lucifer hates her for just a moment.

He looks back at his youngest brother playing with his soup.

“He won’t be able to.”

* * *

Gabriel says nothing as he just passes them all. He stops only in front of Castiel and wordlessly envelops him in his arms.

Castiel breaks down crying again.

Balthazar joins them.

Michael avert his eyes and gestures for Lucifer to go ahead inside, following him a moment later.

“How is he?” Aunt Amara asks. She is standing on the threshold of the kitchen, Uncle Chuck beside her. Both are looking behind Michael’s shoulder and yet not, both are looking at their two nephews just stepped inside and yet not.

It is a time for contradictions, this.

Castiel is back in the life and yet not.

Michael fervently hopes he never will be.

* * *

“He’ll come back.”

Michael doesn’t look at him, and Lucifer understands, really, he does.

It was different, twenty years ago, eight years ago. They were all kids, the first time, and on the second one Lucifer was the only one affected, and he’d never left the life father had forced them all into.

Cassie had gotten out.

Cassie _had gotten out_.

That’s the unfair part, isn’t it? Cassie is the only one who doesn’t remember mother, and yet—

“Tell me it’s not my fault,” Michael whispers, and Lucifer’s heart cracks even more. “Please, Lucifer, tell me I didn’t kill my baby brother's best friend because I wanted to see him.”

Lucifer gathers his big brother in his arms just as he starts crying.

“It’s not your fault, Michael,” he murmurs into his brother’s hair. “It’s not your fault. It’s not your fault.”

He keep repeating it until his throat runs dry.

He can tell Michael still doesn’t believe it.

**Author's Note:**

> I didn't find a way to fit em into this, but know that Hannah is very much one of the siblings.
> 
> Also, yes, they're eight siblings, their father is called Emmanuel and is Chuck's identical twin, Amara is the big sister, Castiel cheats at any game under the sun when he risks losing against Raphael, and Naomi owns a café and wants to brainwash none of her niblings.


End file.
